Welcome to Arundel!

We had such a fun time visiting family over the holiday season and we went to one of our favourite places, so I captured this on a journal page to share with you – Welcome to Arundel!

I cut masking tape into strips and created a grid pattern on the background to depict the wonderful old-fashioned shop windows that we saw throughout the town. I then coloured the windows with Milled Lavender and Mustard Seed Distress Ink using a blending tool to make the windows glow with light. The Arundel Castle is such a majestic landmark and towers over the town, so I had to include it on my page, I drew and cut the battlements out of patterned paper from a Design Pad. Then I outlined them with a black Sharpie permanent marker and stuck them to the page using a UHU Stic which I used for everything else too. The Christmas tree is cut out of the same paper and the baubles are created from Glitterations circle stickers and also images fussy cut from a Christmas card that I had kept to recycle. I like the way the gold glitter sparkles, it reminds me of the town as there were trees on every shop front with lights glowing and sparkling magically. The image of Arundel high street is from a leaflet and depicts Arundel in olden days, the edges are finished using Distress Ink and a blending tool. I also added the “Welcome to Arundel” wording from the leaflet, outlining it with a Glitterations circle sticker. Next I created the candles using strips of lace and the same stickers, the lace design was inspired by fellow crafters who had stalls in one of the old buildings we looked around. I also thought of Valerie when I saw them as she has a thing for candles and they tie into this month’s theme of ‘Light and Darkness’ over at Art Journal Journey. To finish I added extra sparkle using glitter glue to make the candles glow, gold glitter stickers and images from the same recycled Christmas card. I love how this page sparkles!

Arundel is located in West Sussex and you get fantastic views of the Arundel Castle as it is located high on a hill and overlooks the surrounding area. It was built at the end of the 11th century by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel.  The castle and grounds are quite extensive, and look magnificent; one day we may venture inside I think the gardens alone would be quite inspirational and keep us busy for days!

The castle overlooks the River Arun, we had a beautiful walk along its banks with views over the South Downs, then through woodland and alongside the castle moat which lead us back to the town.

As you can see the town square hasn’t changed much from the picture I included on my journal page – well maybe the sheep and cows aren’t there anymore (tee hee!) and like the rest of the town it was wonderfully decorated for the festive season.

Here’s a great example of the old-fashioned windows and twinkling trees on the shop fronts, isn’t it magical!

The castle walls can even be seen up the high street, it is such an integral part of the town.

There were lots of beautiful shops to explore and they are dog friendly too! The shops include antiques, craft, books, gift, flowers and fudge shops as well as the many art galleries and tea rooms. We had great fun browsing and window shopping after our lunch (more to come on that in one of my next posts).

Wishing you all the fun of the Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Milled Lavender, Mustard Seed)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Poundland Design Pad (Urban Style CR0701/16PL2)
• Recycled Christmas Card
• Arundel Museum leaflet
• Poundworld (Adhesive Lace Strips U-80935)
• Anita’s Glitterations (Circle Frames – Gold ANT8181028)
• UHU Stic
• Wilko Low Tack Masking Tape